Toronto lawyer named to lead review into police response at Hamilton Pride event
Published November 14, 2019 at 7:13 pm
The Hamilton Police Services Board has named a Toronto lawyer to conduct the review of the police response to the violence at Hamilton’s 2019 Pride event this summer.
The Hamilton Police Services Board has named a Toronto lawyer to conduct the review of the police response to the violence at Hamilton’s 2019 Pride event this summer.
Board member Fred Bennink announced that they’ve settled on criminal defence lawyer Scott Bergman of Cooper, Sandler, Shime & Bergman LLP in Toronto to carry out the inquiry at Thursday’s (Nov. 14) Police Services Board meeting.
Bergman’s firm has most recently been involved in a review at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto in the wake of the sex assault scandal that has rocked that community. Bergman says he and his partners have a wealth of experience in dealing with systemic reviews that involve vulnerable or marginalized populations.
First up in the review process, Bergman told the board, is to develop terms of reference. In order to do that, he said, he needs to hear from members of the community. Particularly those from the 2SLGBTQIA+.
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“I need to hear from the community,” he said. “In the next couple of weeks especially.”
He said there will be a review of police policies and procedures, particularly in relation to response to events like Pride 2019, but he stressed that the goal of the review would “not be to place blame.”
Hamilton police and the city have been under fire since the violent clash at Pride in June at Gage Park, accused of deliberately delaying their response when the call came in. They’ve also faced backlash over some of the arrests made and charges laid in the aftermath.
Bergman said they would be looking to access what happened this summer and find ways it could have been handled better and how to move forward to “promote healing and restore the relationship between police” and the community.
The draft terms of reference are expected by the next December board meeting and the review report should be completed by March 2020.
He encouraged members of the public, sooner rather than later, to reach out to him and his firm at [email protected].
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